Right now President Obama is backing down on his campaign promise to keep protections for whales in place. This is unacceptable! Please call him and let him know that you want him to keep his campaign promise to uphold the moratorium on whaling and oppose commercial whaling. What’s that? You’re not best friends with President… [read more]
Save the whales again!
Yesterday I attended my first protest and it was freezing! As a protest novice, I learned several valuable lessons. For starters, always bring a sign made on thick poster board. It was so windy that I ended up leaving my flimsy paper sign in the car for fear it would blow away and end up… [read more]
Fin whales: cheetahs of the sea
Second place is such a drag. It means that first place just got away. It means that you were almost the champion. It means that no one gets to hear your national anthem blast during the Olympics. And well let’s face it, second place finishers tend to be forgotten. But what’s that annoying phrase told… [read more]
Dear IWC Commissioner Monica Medina
The International Whaling Commission is considering a proposal to legalize whaling. Please take time to send an email to IWC Commissioner Monica Medina before the next IWC meeting in June. For more information on how to contact Commissioner Medina and how else you can take action please visit: the ACS action alert page. According to… [read more]
Whale and dolphin life histories
Ah to be a whale, dolphin or porpoise living in the deep blue sea. But what do they do all time, where are they going, how do they spend their days, how do they raise their young? These are all questions that researchers and scientists hope to understand by studying their life histories. While living… [read more]
Bowhead whales
Bowhead whales hang out most of the year in the Arctic and don’t seem to mind dealing with sea ice at all. They have become experts at dealing with an extreme environment and are able to break through close to two feet of ice and dive up to an hour, giving them time to find… [read more]
Bottlenose whales
Bottlenose whales are members of the beaked whale family and are easily recognized by a large round bulging forehead sitting atop a very short beak. As males age, their head becomes even larger (in size not ego) and eventually forms a rectangle look with a steep rise and abrupt corner leading to the rest of… [read more]
Ode to the blue whale
The ocean’s most impressive feature Is an 85 foot long 100 ton creature That roams the oceans’ deep With rarely a moments sleep The largest animal to ever live on earth The blue whale is legendary for its girth Their massive mouths defy the mind By lunch feeding their jaws unwind Gulping water until their… [read more]
Baleen whales: an introduction
Baleen whales belong to the scientific suborder Mysticeti and include some of the largest animals to ever live on earth. This impressive group of whales encompass a broad range of preferred types of habits, habitats, migration patterns, food, communication and lifestyles. But they are all united by the same feeding strategy of using a “highly-specialized… [read more]
Baleen: what some whales use instead of teeth
There are two types of whales: baleen whales (Mysticeti) and toothed whales (Odontoceti). And you might have deduced from this statement that baleen is what some whales use instead of teeth. Baleen is made of keratin, the same protein found in human hair and fingernails. And just like our hair and fingernails, baleen is constantly… [read more]